>Sounds like they are making a “LIVING WILL” a matter of law...IOW....like insurance, you MUST HAVE IT<
As has been discussed on this forum in the past, you can use a living will to make it plain you want your life preserved, should you be rendered unconscious or too senile to state your desires.
Living wills aren’t automatically DNR orders.
True. However...
The government has no business requiring me to have a living will.
The government has no business requiring me to discuss this matter with anyone.
Of course, that's true. However, in practice, for the vast majority who sign the standard forms without a full understanding what's in them, that's what it has become. The standard, template advance directives downloaded by the millions off the internet, and shoved at people in the hospital are straight DNR orders. Unless, as you point out, you have one that you've drawn up yourself, or you take the time to cross out and add stuff, you're authorizing DNR, and withholding of hydration and nutrition.
My parents had their lawyer draw up theirs, thinking they were getting something custom to their wishes, but it was the standard withhold-treatment stuff. They were horrified when I went over it and informed them of what they'd actually agreed to. (They quickly had that advance directive changed to orders that accurately reflected what they wanted.)
When my mother-in-law was admitted to the emergency room (fortunately, I was with her), the staff was adamant she sign their DNR, even though I told them there was one on file with her doctor, and at this specific hospital (which explicitly overruled the standard language.) They were not pleased, and persisted in pushing their own paperwork. I finally took it, x'd out the offending passages and wrote in DO PROVIDE Hydration, Nutrition, antibiotics, etc. And I made it very clear that I, or another of her family would be with her until she was released.
I urge all Freepers to make very sure of what they've signed, and to make sure their loved ones do, too, as well as their primary care doctors. The stuff that's being pushed on unsuspecting people is far more draconian than most people realize. Even if a person has decided on DNR, for themselves or their minor child, they may not feel the same way about withholding basic hydration.